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Fostering a Post-Digital Avant-Garde: Research-led teaching of music technology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

John R. Ferguson  and
Andrew R. Brown
John R. Ferguson*
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland Conservatorium, PO Box 3428, South Brisbane Qld 4101, Australia
Andrew R. Brown*
Affiliation:
Griffith University, Queensland College of Art, South Bank campus, S02, 226 Grey Street, Qld 4101Australia
*
*Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]
*Emails: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article we discuss how contemporary computational and electronic music-making practices might be characterised as a post-digital avant-garde. We also discuss how practitioners within the higher education sector can play a role in leading the development of these practices through their research and teaching. A brief overview of twentieth-century avant-garde practices is provided to set the scene before a case for defining a post-digital avant-garde is made. By way of illustration, the authors describe their own post-digital creative practices and then discuss how these integrate into their academic duties. We reflect on themes that run through avant-garde practices and continue into the post-digital. Finally, we describe how these themes inform an undergraduate music technology programme such that it might be shaped to reflect these developments and prepare students for a post-digital future.

Type
Articles
Information
Organised Sound , Volume 21 , Special Issue 2: Situating the Avant–Garde: Conformity and oppositional culture , August 2016 , pp. 127 - 137
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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